Local Perspective – The Faulk Farmstead

I am very pleased to introduce you to my very good friend, Mel from The Faulk Farmstand as our Local Perspective today! Mel is living the next step on our dream towards a more self sufficient life by keeping the most adorable goats imaginable! Need I say more? OK, OK! 😉 Mel is constantly inspiring me to try just a little bit harder at every day tasks and experiments…like with her Foolproof Mayo (which is at the top of my To-Do list) and her method of rendering lard in a crockpot (which I tried and it totally worked…easy peasy)! Plus, she owns the most magnificent set of vintage aprons!

I hope you enjoy getting to know Mel through her local perspective today as much as I have enjoyed getting to know her!

xoxo,
M

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Nowadays, local food is what so many of us strive for. For us, however, this desire is what brought us to where we are today – Homesteaders.

My name is Mel and I blog over at the Faulk Farmstead – a humble blog where I share how my family and I are learning as newbie homesteaders. We are truly blessed to live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, in a small town just outside of Olympia, Washington.

What do WE consider to be local food? First things first, anything that we can produce ourselves is automatically local. Our eggs from our chickens, milk from our goats, and vegetables from our garden. There is NO middle man – and we know EXACTLY what we are getting. Aside from that, we typically consider anything within 100 miles of us “local” – but of course, the closer, the better! For us, what’s second best to eating “local”? Purchasing food from a locally-owned business. Why do we decide to obtain our food this way? Simple. The desire to know where our food came from. We crave that connection with our food – to know what it was doing before it made it’s way into our home. We also want to support our local growth by supporting our local businesses.

We starting homesteading so we could start to incorporate our OWN local foods. We currently have a flock of 20+ hens for fresh eggs and 25 chicks that we are raising for meat for our family. Our homestead is also home to two female Nigerian Dwarf goats who provide our family with milk. We also have 2 sheep (a breeding pair for meat production), 2 ducks (for eggs), and 1 Holstein cow, who will one day provide milk for us.

On our property, we also keep up a vegetable garden that provides fresh veggies – as well as extra to preserve for the winter months. This year, we will be doubling our garden size as well. Last year, we utilized raised beds for our garden, but will be experimenting with row gardening this year.

Spring seed starting on the Faulk Farmstead

Although we have made huge changes to how we obtain our food, only 50% of the food consumed here is considered “local”. However, I see this percentage regularly increasing as we continue to produce our own food here on our homestead. We are also continuing to find more access to local farmer’s markets – and a long term goal of mine is to produce more on the farmstead so that we can provide food to others at local markets as well. Big goal, I know, but I feel that one day it can be possible!

I do believe that eating local can be life-changing. It can alter your way of thinking about where your food comes from – and how you can support your local community.

Have you made the mental switch to eating more local?

Mel is a homesteading mama, full-time nurse, and a continual student to Mother Nature. Her and her family just finished their first year as newbie homesteaders and blog about their experiences at faulkfarmstead.com. Head over to the blog to learn along with her or join her Facebook, Pinterest, G+, Instagram or Hometalk!